In its wisdom, the Welsh Government has established a commission for Welsh-speaking communities.

One of the functions of the commission is to look at a proposed new scheme for housing, to include plans that will allow properties to be marketed to “locals only” first, before then being offered to the wider population.

The plan has been detailed by Jeremy Miles, the Minister for Education and Welsh Language, and the Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities, Comisiwn Cymunedau Cymraeg, will try to bring together experts to make policy recommendations to protect and strengthen Cymraeg as a community language.

The Welsh Language Community Housing Plan will include a voluntary ‘fair chance scheme’, to help sellers make decisions about how they sell property, by allowing properties to be marketed locally only for a fixed period.

The Welsh Government said it will also work with organisations such as estate agents to address the housing needs of those communities, with the plan including support for social enterprises and community housing co-operatives, as well as steps to protect Welsh place names.

In part, the plan wants to negate some of the negative impact second homes and a lack of affordable housing have on our communities.

The Welsh Government had already extended the discretionary powers for local authorities to increase council tax on second and long-term empty homes by up to 300 per cent.

But this “locals only” plan is deeply flawed.

If Minister Miles and his colleagues believe for a moment that making sellers offer houses to locals first will somehow ease the burden or create more opportunity for young people to buy houses here, they are mistaken. And badly so.

The reality is that anyone wishing to sell a house under this misguided scheme, will simply either refuse to accept the first offer from locals, or will wait out the period before agreeing to a sale. Or worse, they’ll simply price the property above the reach of those who need it most.

This plan is but a Band-Aid on an open sore that is festering in our communities. It’s a non-starter.

Surely Minister Miles can do better. Can he?